It’s official. Ford will retire Mercury in late 2010! Mercury has been around for 71 years but now Ford will concentrate on trying to bring Lincoln back to where it should have been years ago. Is this the right move? Ford really had no choice but to kill Mercury and put resources into the Ford brand for one obvious reason. Ford’s are no equipped with some of the latest and greatest technologies available in cars today. With that being said Mercury didn’t have anything to offer that warranted a higher sticker than a Ford brand car or truck. In some ways it’s a testament to how far Ford has come in recent years so Lincoln better get cracking and really blow away expectations or it will be next! Let’s hope that Ford will put the muscle behind Lincoln this time around because the clock is ticking!

From the Detroit News:

Dearborn — Ford Motor Co. today confirmed that it is killing its mid-market Mercury brand to focus its resources on its luxury Lincoln marque.

“We are very proud of its history, but we are now looking forward,” said Ford Americas President Mark Fields, who promised that the nation’s 1,712 dealers would be fairly compensated for the loss of their Mercury franchises.

He said the company would work with them to make sure their remaining Ford and Lincoln franchises make up for the lost sales. “We absolutely remain committed to working with our dealers.”